


Pulling Strings

by TakingOverMidnight3482



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Archer Lance (Voltron), Everyone is Gay for Archery, Keith is gay as hell, M/M, Plot? The plot is just to get to the gay, Post-Canon, Shiro/Curtis are mentioned but not featured
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-15
Updated: 2020-01-15
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:18:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22270159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TakingOverMidnight3482/pseuds/TakingOverMidnight3482
Summary: Keith was a front-lines kind of guy. He preferred hand to hand, sword to sword, fist to fist. He appreciated his backup sniper as much as the next guy (especially because his was particularly attractive), but Keith had never had the urge to fire a long range weapon.So, when the alien insurgent in front of him went down with not a bullet or a laser blast, but an arrow, he turned in disbelief.
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 292





	Pulling Strings

**Author's Note:**

> This is so much fun for me because wonderful artist eve-eleidan on tumblr [made this really cool art for me](https://eve-eleidan.tumblr.com/post/190274824905/commission-for-pftones3482-i-love-em-so-much) and I had already been planning to write this fic but this just spurred me on to get it out way sooner. Please go take a look and support them, bc they totally deserve it!!!
> 
> I haven't done archery in a long time, and Keith has done it never, so pardon any phrasing or terminology that might be off. (And yes, this was completely inspired by the scene from The Princess Diaries 2, bc come on, iconic).

In archery, a shooter must be firm. Shoulders drawn back, hands steady, eyes focused. Their line must be clean, the wind must not blow, and the arrow has to leave the hand without hesitation, because when a shooter hesitates, the line snaps. Cuts close on the elbow and on the wrist, and the arrow wobbles, and is sent reeling down it’s path to miss the center circle on the target. It lands somewhere in the bushes, and the shooter is forced to leave their position to hunt it down.

Keith…was not firm.

Sure, he was an amazing swordsman, a clever fighter, and a sneaky piece of shit, but he had no idea how to even begin to hold a bow and arrow, let alone how to fire one. He’d seen Allura do it, once, on an alien planet, and he’d thought it was kind of cool.

But Keith was a front-lines kind of guy. He preferred hand to hand, sword to sword, fist to fist. He appreciated his backup sniper as much as the next guy (especially because his was particularly attractive), but Keith had never had the urge to fire a long range weapon.

So, when the alien insurgent in front of him went down with not a bullet or a laser blast, but an arrow, he turned in disbelief.

Lance, positioned in the rafters, was nocking another arrow onto his string. There was a quiver on his back, brimming with feathered shafts, and a wry smile graced his face. “Don’t just stare, Kogane, 7 o’clock!”

Keith shook himself out of his startled daze and spun on his heel, dragging his sword down just in time to clash with the rebel’s own weapon. Though they looked shocked, they didn’t falter, just kept fighting back. It didn’t take long to cut them down, and as they fell, another arrow thudded into an alien to Keith’s left, then another, and another. Keith let himself relax into the familiarity of battle.

It hadn’t been a plan to go on a mission, but when Krolia had approached Keith and told him there was a massive outpost off of Jupiter full of rebels of the fallen Galra empire, he’d known he couldn’t do it by himself, or even with Krolia and a couple of Blades. He needed his team for this, or at least some of them.

It had taken zero convincing for Pidge to join, which didn’t surprise him, given that she still did a lot of work with Matt and the coalition to maintain peace. It had taken slightly more for Hunk, who’d only agreed after he’d seen the mechanics of the building they needed to break into. He hadn’t even asked Shiro, what with him and Curtis having a newborn in the house.

Lance…Keith hadn’t known what to expect. They didn’t see each other that often anymore, but when he’d shown up at the farmhouse and found Lance with his sleeves rolled up, mud speckling his nose, and flowers at his feet, he’d expected a hard no.

He got a very fast, very firm yes, and the Lance that had walked down the stairs 15 minutes later was very different from the one in the field. He was back to being a soldier, a fighter, but there was still that sparkle in his eyes that Keith had always found so endearing.

When Keith had asked if he needed to borrow a Blade gun, Lance had scoffed and shaken his head. Keith assumed that meant he had his own gun, but now?

“Keith?”

He shook his head, lifting his hand to his comms as he realized a bit belatedly that all the soldiers around him were down for the count. “Go, Pidge.”

“Base is down. All communications offline, security feed destroyed. Hunk is taking out the air fleet and vehicles now. They’re not getting off this planet anytime soon.”

Keith couldn’t help but smile. “Thanks, guys. Rendezvous at the fighter.”

“Copy,” Pidge and Hunk chorused.

He turned as Lance slid down the embankment, holding his bow out so that it didn’t get ruined. He was in dark boots and riding pants, a form fitting tee on his upper half with loose shoulders that Keith assumed let him move fluidly for shooting. He approached Keith with a shit-eating smirk on his face. “Nice work, Mullet.”

Keith rolled his eyes, fond. It hadn’t been a mullet for almost three years, but the nickname had stuck. “Back at you. I didn’t know you used bows and arrows.”

Lance shrugged, slipping his bow over his body as they walked toward the fighter jet together, hands loose at his sides in case they were ambushed again. “After the war ended, I got restless. Mom isn’t a fan of guns with little kids around the house, so she and my dad found an old set of bows and arrows in the barn and I fixed them up. It’s a lot like firing a gun, just takes more accuracy.”

“You’re good at it,” Keith said with a nod, waving a hand at Pidge as he spotted her and Hunk coming from the opposite direction. “Wish I could do that.”

“Want some lessons?”

Keith blinked rapidly, almost stumbling over his own two feet as he looked over to see if Lance was kidding. No such thing, a gentle smile and sincerity in his gaze. “What?”

Lance shrugged, and now his smile was lopsided, something mischievous. “I could give you lessons. Once we debrief with Krolia and the others, we can go back to the farm, you can relax for once in your quiznaking life, and we can catch up. Good?”

“Yeah,” Keith said, feeling a little breathless for no reason other than that this was Lance asking him to come learn archery with him. “Yeah, sounds good.”

~~

Bad. This was bad.

Keith was very, very gay, and Lance’s jeans hugged his ass just a little too well for his pathetic gay heart. He was bent over, rummaging through a trunk in the barn, and Keith was trying very hard not to stare, but it was almost impossible, because his butt was _right there_ and his jeans were so form fitting.

“So I have the bow I started out with still,” Lance said, standing straight again and turning. Keith forced his eyes up with a faint blush and a polite nod. “I think Sylvio wants me to teach him soon. It’s lighter than a professional bow, but you already have a lot of upper arm strength from sword fighting, so it might even be too easy for you. Here.”

He pressed it into Keith’s hands without warning, making Keith fumble and nearly drop it. He held it like it was a dead fish, trying not to panic. “Um.”

Lance’s laugh was bright, and even though he was laughing at him, Keith was still fully enamored. “Dude, it’s not gonna kill you. You don’t even have to hold it correctly right now, just draw the string back.”

Keith lifted it like he’d seen Lance do, like he’d seen athletes do at the Olympics, and drew the string taut. It moved with ease, like butter across a hot pan, and Lance nodded like he’d made an important discovery. “Cool, so the trainer is way too light for you. We’ll use mine.”

He took the bow back and turned back to the trunk, leaving Keith to lift his gaze to the ceiling of the barn. He only lowered it when the trunk thumped shut, watching as Lance rolled the sleeves of his button-down up to just below his elbows. Keith’s mouth was a little dry. “All right, lets go. You might want to roll your sleeves up for the arm guard. Plus if the fabric catches on the arrow, that’s no fun.”

Keith rolled his sleeves up over his elbows as they walked. The shirt was one of Lance’s work button-downs, red (“For nostalgia,” he’d laughed when he handed it over and donned his own blue one), and it smelled like juniberries and laundry soap. He tucked it into his pants as he walked, nervous about anything too loose.

They stopped a couple yards out past the barn, where the grass was cut short and there were several targets set up along the far fence. Lance set down his bag and removed the bow he’d been using earlier, as well as a couple of arrows that, Keith noted, didn’t have feathers on the ends, just little plastic flaps and a notch. “No feathers?” he asked without thinking as he pulled on the arm guard and the glove Lance had given him.

Lance’s eyes glimmered when he looked up. “Not unless you want to ruin all my nice arrows, no,” he chuckled. “No offense, Mullet, but you get the training arrows first.”

Keith nodded and took the bow from Lance. The grip was textured, easy to hold onto, and Keith settled it in the palm of his left hand. He fingered the string of the bow nervously with his right, looking up at Lance, who was pulling was looked like tiny caps off the tips of the arrows – safety precautions, Keith realized a little sheepishly. “What do I do?”

Lance handed over an arrow with a fond smile. “I know you’re not dumb. Show me how you think you do it.”

Keith swallowed. Even training with the Blades, he’d never felt quite this flustered holding a new weapon. Granted, he didn’t have a crush on any of the Blades. He put the notch of the arrow against the string and rested the edge of sharp end against what looked like a tiny shelf on the grip side. When he went to lift it, the arrow flopped off the lip and to the side, and Keith wrinkled his nose.

Lance snorted, moving around to fix it. “Happens to everyone, don’t worry. You’re actually pretty close. You just have to lift the bow and draw back the string at the same time, or the arrow flops. Try again.”

Keith settled the arrow in again, licking his lips. He glanced up at the target, sideways at Lance, who was watching him with an open, almost fond expression, and then back down at the arrow. He lifted the bow, drawing his elbow and the arrow back at the same time as smoothly as he could manage. The arrow still wobbled a little, but it stayed in place, and Keith breathed a sigh of relief.

It stuttered on his lips when Lance’s hand slid over his right elbow and his other hand moved to grip the bottom of the bow. His back was nearly flush with Keith’s. “Good,” he breathed in his ear. It sent shivers down Keith’s spine. “But relax, dude. If you tense up, all of you will hurt tomorrow.”

He eased the bow down just a little, and the hand on Keith’s elbow pressed his arm down until it was level with his hand. It stayed there, curled on his skin, and Keith felt like he could feel every point of contact they shared.

Lance’s voice held the tint of laughter in it when he spoke again. “Breathe out.”

Keith let out a long, shaky breath, trying to relax his body along with it. Lance’s hand burned. “Release.”

The arrow stung as it brushed past his fingers, whipping through the air and landing in the target with a solid “thud.” It didn’t hit the bullseye – Keith hadn’t expected it to – but it also wasn’t in the outer rings or the field beyond it, which was much better than he’d been expecting. Something like giddiness welled up inside his chest. “I did it,” he managed.

The grin spread across his face without warning. “Shit, I _did_ it,” he said again, heart pounding. “I thought I’d miss entirely!”

He spun to face Lance without thinking, faltering when he remembered that Lance was literally right behind him. Lance laughed, steadying Keith as he tripped, and squeezed his shoulder. “Good job, Keith. Maybe you could actually hit a bullseye by the end of the day.”

Keith couldn’t speak. He tightened his grip on the bow, mouth dry. “Yeah. Maybe.”

“You good?” Lance asked, his smile fading into something a little concerned. His eyes danced over Keith’s face, and Keith found himself lifting a hand, curling it into the buttons of Lance’s shirt. Lance froze, eyes wide.

“I really…really want to kiss you,” Keith choked out. The bow was trembling in his fingers.

The concern in Lance’s face slipped away, replaced with a soft fondness. He reached out, taking the bow from Keith and setting it on the ground at their feet carefully. When he stood fully again, his hand slid up and wrapped around Keith’s neck. “What’s stopping you?”

Keith tugged at his shirt and Lance crashed into him with a sharp laugh, their noses bumping as Keith kissed him without an ounce of hesitation left. Lance’s free hand curled around Keith’s lower back, fingers hooking into his belt loops and pulling him even closer. Keith let go of Lance’s shirt and instead guided his hands up to his face, breaking apart with a gasp of air and settling their foreheads together.

Lance was grinning, and something in the way his eyes danced made Keith’s heart jump. “You knew.”

“You were staring at my ass, you dipshit, of course I knew,” Lance snorted. He hooked his other fingers on the belt loops on Keith’s other side, keeping him from moving. “I mean, I knew before that, but that was really just a dead giveaway, man.”

Keith was blushing again, fumbling for words. Lance tugged on his belt loops. “Hey. Doesn’t mean I haven’t wanted to for a long time, though. This was just a great excuse. We hadn’t seen each other in ages, so this mission was the perfect timing.”

“We could have died on the mission!” Keith protested.

Lance snickered and pressed another quick kiss to Keith’s lips, sending his head spinning. “Yeah right. Asshole, we’re paladins.”

“You’re cocky,” Keith said, but there was no malice behind the words.

Lance hummed and kissed him again, and Keith wasn’t sure he’d ever get used to that. “Maybe. But you’ve been stringing me along for years, so I’m allowed to be.”

“Was that an archery pun?”

“…not intentionally, but it is now.”

“You’re the worst.”

“You like me anyways.”

Keith backed up and picked up the bow again, studying it in faked interest. “Debatable. Now teach me how to actually shoot straight, mm?”

Lance, to his credit, just picked up another arrow and held it out. “No promises on the straight part.”

“Christ.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Again, pls go check out eve-eleidan's [artwork they did for me](https://eve-eleidan.tumblr.com/post/190274824905/commission-for-pftones3482-i-love-em-so-much) and support them. I cannot express how much I love it.


End file.
